(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a rowing machine, and more particularly to a rowing machine in which a pivot of an action column is located near to the user's side for reducing the slanting angle of the action column when lifted, ensuring safety during use, and in which pedals provided on both sides of a front end portion of the action column provide an auxiliary elevating force when pressed against by the user's feet for facilitating the user's application of force on the rowing bars.
(b) Description of the Prior Art
FIG. 1 shows a conventional rowing machine, essentially comprising a base 10, and a seat plate 12 located above the base 10 and pivotally connected to a front end thereof. A bottom end of a middle section of the seat plate 12 is connected to one end of a support bar 14 with a pulley. The other end of the support bar 14 is pivotally connected to the base 10 at a suitable position. The support bar 14 is further connected to a couple of rowing bars 16. When the rowing bars 16 are operated, the support bar 14 will, due to linking-up movement, lift up the seat plate 12 by means of the displacement of its pulley. However, since the seat plate 12 and the base 10 share a common fulcrum A at their joint at the front end thereof, when the seat plate 12 is tilted relative to the fulcrum A, a seat 11 on the seat plate 12 will be at a comparatively high position from the floor and is in an inclined state. (Under the same internal angle, the distance from a point on the seat plate 12 nearer to the fulcrum A to a reference plane is smaller than the distance from another point on the seat plate 12 farther to the fulcrum A to the reference plane.) The user sitting on the seat 11 will also incline substantially forward so that his/her weight is concentrated at the front end of the base 10. There is a great possibility that the user may fall down accidentally. Furthermore, in such a conventional rowing machine, only a single support bar is employed to work in cooperation with the rowing bars 16 for supporting the user's weight, without any auxiliary or supplementary support to facilitate the application of force on the rowing bars in working the rowing machine. To overweight people, or those of not very good physique or having poor cardiac or pneumonic functions, such rowing machines are not suitable.
FIG. 2 shows another conventional rowing machine which was later developed. It essentially comprises a couple of rowing bars 20 horizontally provided with a post 21, which is in turn pivotally provided with a roller 22 at a center thereof. When the rowing bars 20 are operated, the post 21 will be brought to displace upwardly, and the roller 22 will lift up a seat plate 23. At this time, since the seat plate 23 is pivotally connected to four linking-up levers 24, the seat plate 23 is elevated or lowered in a horizontal manner.
Although such a conventional rowing machine provides a certain degree of safety, it is arranged to have four linking-up levers 24 for supporting the seat plate 23 so that the application of force by the user is greatly reduced, which may undermine or even obviate the exercising effects. A damping element 25 is therefore provided below the post 21 to provide a damping force to enhance the exercising effects. This conventional rowing machine is therefore complicated in construction and expensive to manufacture.
In addition, since the seat plate 23 is elevated or lowered in a horizontal manner, when the user pulls the rowing bars 20 backwardly to the highest point, he/she will also rise with the seat plate 23. At this time, the user's hands are however located on both sides of his/her hip. But as a matter of fact, in actual rowing, the rower holds the oars and move them upwardly and then downwardly and backwardly so as to drive the oars into the water to push a rowing boat forward. In brief, when the user is performing a back pulling action, his/her hands should move from the height of the legs gradually to the height of the chest. However, in this conventional rowing machine, the direction of rowing actions is just opposite, which is a serious error in the design.